New pretender gods

[Boron]

johan osterman said:
What's wrong with the ancient and very powerful totally evil earth mother.

More seriously: what's wrong with the ancient and very powerful totally evil Moloch. Hmm, the totally whimpy imps I suppose.

Edit: oops, posted as Johan - KO

My "problem" with the moloch is that he is available for almost all nations . And the description : "The moloch is an infernal angel called or sent from beyond ."
So he is evil but only a lackey of a way bigger evil .

Mictlan is good there with the lord of the night as their nation only demon god .
Such a nation specific god for abysia and ermor would be nice too imo .

The other "problem" i have with ermor that first you have mercy with them because they are like the spirits in Final Fantasy : The spirits within . Poor , abortive , disillusioned undeads . And there is the only "half-abortive" Broken empire theme .

And ermor is hordes but they are not frightening . A few priests stop ermorian national armies with ease .
So ermor are the kind of bad guys with which you have to have mercy .

I would like to see a nation which consists of some very powerful evil beings like demons / evil dragons etc. .
They wouldn't be numerous but really frightening , like jotunheim .

I am a big fan of the fantasy cliche of impossible to beat seeming evils like sauron/mordor in lord of the rings or the imperium in star wars .

The description from the PoD is quite evil though .
Perhaps i misunderstand simply the game concept .
You are on your way to ascend to a god but when you do this you are just infernal angel / demon prince XYZ .
Only once you defeat your enemies you ascend to a real powerful god .
I personally though always see my pretender as a real god already who defeats the other gods which i find more rewarding even because otherwise your pretender seems more unimportant .

If you play e.g. Abysia with a Moloch and summon finally the demon lords you get the feeling that they are your taskmaster and you are only an unimportant lackey of them .
So i would enjoy a stylish special pretender for abysia who has a description + looking which qualifies him to be of equal power with a demon lord .
Then you have the feeling you call your "brothers" for help and not your employer .
Like in diablo with Mephisto , Diablo and Baal they were 3 equal brothers .
Such an evil i would like to have as a god for some evil nations and not a minor one like a Vq/Moloch/PoD .
I would like a good counterpart to this too for the brave and good nations but there it is much harder to find a worthy role model .

[Lepakko]

i Miss Real Demon pretender 2 the abysians

and Spider pretender to machaka... Spiders need leader

[Boron]

Hm it would probably need too much effort in dominion 2 and more important unbalance it but what would you think about that for dominions 3 :

Pretenders have various stages :
They start weak but the more successfull their struggle for supremacy is the stronger they get .
It should be connected to dominionstrength :
You have 2 or more stages like the eater of the dead .
You start with stage 1 which is the weakest . Once you reach a total dominion strength of 50+ you get to stage 2 forever . If you reach a dominion strength of 200+ you get to stage 3 .

In each stage you get depending on your pretender stylish and thematic improvements . A VQ e.g. could start with recuperation and when she advances to stage 2 recuperation gets replaced by immortality . At stage 3 you get an even more powerful vampire queen with e.g. +x to attack/def/mr/hp etc. .

Human rainbows could get +1 to all magic skills with stage 3 e.g. . The "Monsterpretenders" like the Moloch could start as a small demon as they do atm and finally transform into an archdemon ( not one of the current arch demons but a new type ) .

This would make earlygame war more exciting too . I think atm your best bet to win a "normal" earlygame war is by attrition if the enemy has a sc pretender of his own , especially a vq .

[Cainehill]

Another nice pretender would be a Fenrir / Fenris pretender for Jotunheim; a terrible giant wolf.

[Esben Mose Hansen]

Peter Ebbesen said:
Sticking with Godly archetypes from myth and legend, Dom2 really lacks a trickster of some sort. The somewhat good/somewhat bad/always unpredictable god that is so essential to round out a pantheon. Some possible abilities include, but are not limited to:

• Increases unrest in own province
• 25% chance of bonus good event in own province
• 15% chance of bonus bad event in own province
• low dominion
• low fire/air/astral magic - though, really, could be anything depending on which mythology you would raid for the trickster
• stealth(+25)
• instill uprising ability (not that many people would use a pretender for this, but it is thematic )
• extra miscellaneous slot over base creature type

Anyhow, you get the idea. The Dom2 pantheon is filled with the good, the bad, and the ugly. It would be nice to add the whimsical.

Hey Peter, welcome back! Does that mean you'll be playing dom2 again?

And I agree, a Lokelike (couldn't resist) pretender is sort of missing. I would go with no magic paths and luck.

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Esben Mose Hansen said:
And I agree, a Lokelike (couldn't resist) pretender is sort of missing. I would go with no magic paths and luck.

I like the idea too. Although if that was possible, I think just increasing the chance for random events in the province the pretender is in (either good or bad, depending on the Luck scale) would be more appropriate.

[Tuidjy]

As long as we are wishing...

I would like to see a human warrior king. A great warrior who has won
so many victories, and has slain so many powerful beings that he has
achieved great fame, and has become a legend in his own lifetime.

He would have great attack/defense, come with decent equipment, and
probably have a few built-in abilities, although nothing as
ridiculously overpowering as Cohen's mage-priest-deity-immortal-knights.
No starting magic, and very high magic path cost (50 or even 80). Human
type hit points, and better than human dominion.

[Heironeous]

Tuidjy said:
As long as we are wishing...

I would like to see a human warrior king. A great warrior who has won
so many victories, and has slain so many powerful beings that he has
achieved great fame, and has become a legend in his own lifetime.

He would have great attack/defense, come with decent equipment, and
probably have a few built-in abilities, although nothing as
ridiculously overpowering as Cohen's mage-priest-deity-immortal-knights.
No starting magic, and very high magic path cost (50 or even 80). Human
type hit points, and better than human dominion.

I like this idea a lot. If you want to emphasize his "slayer of powerful beings" bit, you could give him the ability to do double damage to larger creatures. That would help compensate for his lower hit points.

[deccan]

Tuidjy said:
As long as we are wishing...

I would like to see a human warrior king. A great warrior who has won
so many victories, and has slain so many powerful beings that he has
achieved great fame, and has become a legend in his own lifetime.

He would have great attack/defense, come with decent equipment, and
probably have a few built-in abilities, although nothing as
ridiculously overpowering as Cohen's mage-priest-deity-immortal-knights.
No starting magic, and very high magic path cost (50 or even 80). Human
type hit points, and better than human dominion.

Sounds like PvK's Avatar of Ulm.

[Tuidjy]

I was not familiar with that mod, and after checking it out, I know why -
that pretender is horribly underpowered. I would not take him if he cost
zero design points, and at 200, he is laughable. Furthermore, he is Ulm
only, and part of an unofficial mod. I would like a warrior king blessed
by Illwinter, and one available to all human nations.

On the other hand, his graphics are nothing short of excelent.